And so it begins again. This is likely to be a long hard slog at level 4.

L4D1 - 20 rounds. Felt solid. Should be straightforward to start moving this up. Sandwiched between two hard runs.
L4D2 - 6:10. This was slower than I expected. The push ups are where the main improvement has to come.
L4D3 - 8:33. Pull-ups in 9-5-3-2-1. Push-ups in 20-6-6-6-3.

The first time doing D3 at a new level is always nice because it feels pretty low pressure. I focused here on moving the first set size up. 9 for the pull-ups and 20 for the push-ups. I expect to be at level 4 for a while, but will work on strict technique and getting the set sizes up on D3. Perhaps shooting for 10-6-4 on the pull-ups and 25-16 for the push-ups.

L4D1 - 27 rounds - A nice improvement over last week. 30 may be in striking distance.
L4D2 - 4:41 - This was the big one this week. Still well under 5 minutes despite dropping to strict 2 minute breaks. Next week I'll go down to 1 minute breaks.
L4D3 - 6:30 - Nice improvement on time, but I didn't get the set sizes up where I wanted them. Pull-ups in 9-5-2-2-2, Push-ups in 15-10-9-7-4. Squats straight through.

At this stage I think there is a trade-off between speed and set-sizes. But I really want to get the set sizes up before moving on to level 5, so will keep working on it.

Meanwhile, it looks like there isn't much of anyone left in the Simplefit community. The boards are very quiet. Oh well. I labor on like Mark Watney left behind on Mars.

L4D1 - 21 rounds - A big drop from last week. Most likely due to very high heat and humidity. Started w/3 mile run @ 7.24 pace, ended w/3 miles @ 9:55
L4D2 - 5:01 - This was actually surprisingly strong. Did this at the end of a 10 mile trail run, and with just 1 minute breaks.
L4D3 - 7:30 - A minute slower than last week, but nice set sizes: 9-6-3-2 for pull-ups, 25-10-6 for push-ups. Straight through for squats.

Aiming for L4D3 sets of 10-6-4 for the pull-ups and 25-16 for the push-ups. This was progress toward that goal, even if a little slower overall.

L4D1 - 28 rounds - Up one from previous best. I did two extra rounds at the end, so 30 is certainly doable.
L4D2 - 6:40 - Big slowdown from last week. 1 min breaks. But I wasn't thinking and did the first two rounds without a break, which slowed everything else down.
L4D3 - 7:45 - My arms were probably still a little gassed from big erg session, so smaller sets and slower. Pull-ups 5-5-4-3-2-2 (did one extra). Push-ups 10-10-12-9. Squats straight through.

L4D1 - 24 rounds. 4 down from last week. There was a bit of a crowd at the pull-up bar.
L4D2 - 6:15. Strict 1 minute breaks. Push-ups are the weak link, which surprises me. First 3 rounds were at about 1 min. Then 1:17, then 1:55!
L4D3 - 8:40 - Pull-ups in 10-4-3-2-1. Push-ups in 15-7-7-7-5. Squats straight through.

The good news this week was moving up to 10 pull-ups to start D3. I'm not sure what is going on with the push-ups, but I think I need to start doing some extra-curricular push-up work. Big 2-day bike ride this weekend then back at it next week.

Actually I don't know what week it is. I stopped out for a while to do the extracurricular work. I've particularly been working everyday on increasing my push-up numbers. That did the trick. Last week I did L4D3 in 4:37. So, I'm on to level 5 again.

For the time being, I'm focused on bigger push-up sets and everyday pull-ups. I'll probably do some L5 workouts at random just to keep track of how things are going.

Today was L5D1 - 20 rounds in 20 minutes.

Bottom line from this experiment was that simplefit is a terrific program, but I think I need some additional work on the push-ups and pull-ups to move more quickly through the levels (though there is nothing wrong with slow and steady).

This is my seventh week doing intermittent work on level 5. This week I did 20 rounds for L5D1 on Monday.

Then on Saturday, I pulled off the L5D3 test in 4:52. The pull-up sets were 6-5-5-4-3-3. The push-ups were 30-21. The squats were straight through. Form was solid, although not perfect. I took advantage of a little bit of a jump for the first pull-up of each set, but there was no swinging. The push-ups were at least down to where my upper arms were parallel with the ground, but I didn't hit my chin/chest on every rep. The squats were likewise probably not always as deep as I do them for the D1 routine.

Now on to level 6. The last time I was on level 6 was in 2012 and it took 7 months on level 5 to get there. What was different? This time around I have been doing more of a "greasing the groove" type routine. I have been building up push-ups, chin-ups, and pull-ups with smaller sets throughout the day. So, my conclusion is that for me, anyway, just focusing on Simplefit didn't produce progress as quickly as the greasing the groove strategy.